


Quiet Moments

by Orime



Series: Watcher Seluna [2]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Comfort, Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-29
Updated: 2020-07-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:15:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25589695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orime/pseuds/Orime
Summary: Three short pieces I wrote to fill some prompts on tumblr for my moon godlike Watcher, Seluna. A storm at sea more easily weathered with Aloth by her side. A moment's pause by the campfire with Edér. An important conversation she had with her mother as a teen while waiting for the rain to pass. You can find me on tumblr as orime-stories if you're interested in sending me prompts in the future!
Relationships: Aloth Corfiser/The Watcher, Edér Teylecg/The Watcher
Series: Watcher Seluna [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854688
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	1. The Silence After a Thunderstorm

Storms at sea were on a whole other level. Nothing but creaking wood between her and the roiling waves outwith. And the _thunder_. It travelled in a wave of its own, rolling and building to a crescendo within her chest, rumbling through her very bones and making sure she knew just how small and breakable she was.

Alone in her cabin, she could let the scared little girl out to breathe. Curled up on her bed, hugging a pillow to her chest, she would fight the urge to hide under something by silently singing the old songs to herself, the old hymns of worship. The words were... complicated now. But the melodies remained the same comforting, familiar refuges they had always been. A safe path through the jagged edges of her terror until the storm broke and she could breathe again.

But this night was different. This night she and Aloth had scrambled for each other's hands in the darkness, still half blinded by the sleep they had been abruptly roused from. Finding each other, they had eased the tension with a shared chuckle and pulled each other close. A kiss, heartbeats pounding under gentle fingertips. A pocket of safety.

And then the storm had passed and her world was quiet once more. The swell and crash of gentler, soothing waves. The unhurried footsteps of a crew letting their guard back down. And the steady, welcome sound of her love breathing by her side.


	2. By the Campfire After a Long Day

It was a familiar scene that they had revisited time and time again on their travels. The gentle hush of night. Weary limbs stretching out with a sigh. A little campfire crackling. Different places, different times, different destinations. But always that same little orange anchor-light marking the transition of one day to the next. A chance to reset.

Back home in Aedyr, the nights would be blanketed in a cacophony of insects screaming into the humid air. But in the Dyrwood, the dark seemed to stretch out, empty and silent all around her. She found it eerie when her attention rested there for any length of time. But luckily her companions knew better than to leave her alone with her thoughts for too long.

As if summoned from her musings, she was drawn back into the safe boundaries of the firelight by large fingers giving the back of her neck an affectionate squeeze.

"Long day," Edér said. "And tomorrow looks to be even longer."

She didn't want to think about that right now. So she thought about kissing him instead. He read that in her face and grinned. "Tomorrow's problem, right?"

"Unfortunately," she murmured as she leaned in to indulge those thoughts, raising a hand to trace the curves of his cheekbones and jawline with her fingers and then nestling them into his beard.

By day, she was the Watcher of Caed Nua, solver of problems and seeker of mysterious soul cures. But here in these late evenings, she was just a woman enjoying the company of her dear ones by the fire.

Sighing happily, she shifted to settle her head against Edér's lap in their familiar routine, his hands automatically beginning to trace and soothe away all the little knots of stress she had been building throughout the day, finding her a safe trail through her nightmares and into the clearing where she could find true rest.

The world was quiet, and still, and safe. And as her eyes closed, a single cricket began to sing into the night.


	3. Taking Shelter in the Rain

Seluna came clattering into the house, fumbling with her sodden clothes.

"The rain get you, little moon?" her mother called from where she was sorting and chopping vegetables by the stove.

"Didn't give me much warning," she huffed, pulling her tunic over her head and grabbing a metal basin to chuck it into.

"You'll dry off faster next to the stove," her mother hinted, flicking her head to toss her braided hair behind her shoulder as she chopped. Seluna often wondered if she would have had hair like that, brown with a hint of red. If she'd been born normal.

"I imagine you're right," she assented, padding over in the first dry tunic she'd grabbed. One of her father's. It drowned her, and for a moment she felt like a child again, simple and held. "Sit down for a bit," she said. "No doubt Eothas saw your trials and shooed me in here to save you from Magran's mighty cookpot."

"He's always been good to me," her mother smiled, releasing the utensils and retreating to her chair by the bookcase.

For a time nothing more was said. The rain continued to patter down, running in tiny rivers down the windowpane before her. It all began to feel strangely meditative, and she found herself being drawn into the methodic Chop. Chop. Chop. Slide of her knife as she cut the vegetables and pushed them to join the growing mound at the end of the chopping board.

Then, from that place of stillness, the little niggles and irritations began to float back to the surface as they had been doing so often of late. "If Eothas did send me, I don't think he'd use the rain to do it." Chop. Chop. Chop. Slide.

"How so?" her mother asked.

"It hides his sun away. He must hate the rain." Chop. Chop. Chop. Slide. Her mother purposefully cleared her throat. "Prefer the rain not to be there," she amended, rolling her eyes before she could stop herself. She tipped the vegetables into the pot with a splash and grabbed the next batch.

"The sun doesn't need to be shining for us to feel His presence. You know that. And He knows that we need the rain to grow our food. Else there wouldn't be anything left for Him to shine His light on."

Chop. Chop. Chop. Slide.

"Well _I_ don't like the rain," she mumbled, wondering what she was even getting annoyed at.

"Rain teaches us that the sun will shine again, just as night teaches us that the dawn will come again."

Her mother was always so certain. Always so clued in to a bigger picture. Seluna held back a sigh and set the knife down, looking up at the window before her and choosing to see as her mother did. Choosing to see with faithful eyes.

Each droplet chasing its siblings down the pane had a shine of its own, she realised, sparkling with whatever light it could find. She shifted her focus back to the sound of the rain; striking the ground and skittering off into the undergrowth. Feeding crops, yes, but also allowing the flowers to grow. Flowers that would open and turn to greet the sun as it travelled across the sky.

A shiver ran up her spine. "Eothas is in everything," she said softly. A truth she had always known but was now _seeing_.

"That's right, little moon," her mother said in a voice that shone with pride. And Eothas was in that too.


End file.
